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San Diego, CA, San Diego Museum

Following the San Diego's Panama-California Exposition of 1915 a permanent museum in San Diego was established in order to house the various collections that had been gathered for the fair, It was incorporated on November 3, 1915, and given all funds remaining from the fair as well as the use of the buildings that had comprised the California Quadrangle. The early exhibits included anthropological and archaeological specimens, historical artifacts, and works of art. After the founding of the Fine Arts Society in 1925 and the San Diego History Center in 1928, the San Diego Museum began to concentrate on ethnographic collections and was eventually renamed the Museum of Man in 1942.

"The Egyptian Collections: There are three main collections of Egyptian materials: the Scripps Collection from the Egypt Exploration Society (450 objects), the funerary artifacts donated by Dr. Geoffrey Smith (approximately 400 objects), and the seven coffins donated by Mr. and Mrs. Martin Paul:

The Scripps / Egypt Exploration Society Collection came from the excavations in the 1920s and 1930s by the Egypt Exploration Society of Great Britain. Miss Ellen Browning Scripps of San Diego made generous contributions to the Society and became its Honorary Secretary for the State of California. Because of her support, she was allowed to name the Museum as the recipient of objects from the excavations after the Cairo Museum had made its selection. Although a few other museums were named as beneficiaries, we are exceedingly fortunate to have received documented Amarna artifacts. The Museum received objects from 1921 to 1939. An Egyptian Hall displayed the objects during the 1920s and 1930s. They were packed and stored during WWII. In the 1950s, they were exhibited in what is now the workshop in an exhibit called TheEgyptian Tomb (1950s). A robbery of some of the artifacts, mainly jewelry, forced its closure, and the artifacts were placed in storage."